Preferential treatment in selection of contractors and investors, applicable as of January 1, 2024

Entities entitled to preferential treatment in contractor selection

(1) Goods of Vietnamese origin;  

(2) Environmentally friendly products and services according to laws on environmental protection;

(3) Domestic bidders producing goods of Vietnamese origin in conformity with bidding documents;

(4) Foreign bidders in joint ventures with domestic bidders, in which domestic bidders take over 25% or more of the work value of the procurement package;

(5) Domestic bidders with individual status or in joint ventures with other domestic bidders during international bidding;

(6) Bidders that are micro-enterprises or small-sized enterprises according to laws on assistance for small and medium-sized enterprises;

(7) Bidders that are startups as prescribed by laws;

(8) Bidders with a percentage of female employees of 25% or more; employees who are war invalids and disabled persons of 25% or more; employees who are ethnic minorities of 25% or more.

Preferential treatment in contractor selection

(i) If two bidders are assessed as equal, the bidder eligible for preferential treatment will be ranked higher;

(ii) Additional points will be added to the assessment scores of bidders eligible for preferential treatment in case of applying the fixed price method, technical method, or combined technical and price-based method to the comparison and ranking;

(iii) The bid prices or evaluated prices of bidders ineligible for preferential treatment will be increased in case of applying the lowest bids method or evaluated price method to the comparison and ranking;

(iv) Prioritization in the assessment of capacity, experience, and other criteria during bid evaluation;  

 (v) Bidding for construction contracts worth less than 5 billion VND is exclusive to micro-enterprises and small-sized enterprises. After the bidding, if no micro-enterprises or small-sized enterprises meet the requirements, it is permitted to re-organize the bidding and allow other enterprises to participate in the bidding.

Regulations on application of preferential treatment to contractor selection

- Entities prescribed in Points (1), (2), (3), and (7) above are eligible for preferential treatment according to Points (ii) and (iii) mentioned above when participating in bidding for mixed or procurement contracts;  

- Entities prescribed in Points (4) and (5) above are eligible for preferential treatment according to Points (ii) and (iii) mentioned above when participating in international bidding for contracts for counseling service or non-counseling service provision, construction contracts, or mixed contracts;

- Entities prescribed in Point (8) above are eligible for preferential treatment according to Point (i) mentioned above when participating in domestic bidding for contracts for counseling service or non-counseling service provision, construction contracts, or mixed contracts;

- Entities prescribed in Points (6) above are eligible for preferential treatment according to Points (i) and (v) mentioned above when participating in domestic bidding for construction contracts;

- Aside from the preferential treatment prescribed in Points (ii) and (iii), bidders specified in Points (3) and (7) above are eligible for preferential treatment according to Point (iv) when participating in domestic bidding for contracts for counseling service or non-counseling service provision, procurement contracts, construction contracts, or mixed contracts;

- During a domestic bidding process, if there are at least 3 domestic manufacturers for a product meeting technical, quality, and pricing requirements, the investor may decide whether to require the bidders to include domestically manufactured products in their bid.

Entities entitled to preferential treatment in investor selection

- Investors that have measures to apply technology to reduce environmental pollution to projects that pose a high risk of adverse environmental impacts according to laws on environmental protection;

- Investors that make commitments to transfer the technologies included in the list of technologies prioritized for development investment according to laws on high technologies or the list of technologies encouraged for transfer according to laws on technology transfer.

Preferential treatment in investor selection

- If two investors are assessed as equal, the investor eligible for preferential treatment will be ranked higher;

- Additional points will be added to the total score for comparison and ranking.

The Law on Procurement 2023 comes into force as of January 1, 2024.

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